Sri Lanka should overcome difficulties soon

A. C. de Silva

LANKA RE-VISITED: Remember swimmer, water-polo and rugby player Anton Swan? Well, he is in Sri Lanka once again with his charming wife Bronwen “to see the country of his birth and to meet the numerous friends and dear mother”.

Anton Swan migrated to Australia and made Melbourne his temporary home in 1970 and then married his choice of lady love Bronwen in 1972 and moves across to Brisbane to establish his home. He first found employment in ANZ Bank in Melbourne and after five years service and got as transfer ad Security Officer in the bank to Brisbane.

Anton had a whole host of friends while in Sri Lanka, his country of birth and was a household name in swimming and water-polo. He was a member of St. Mary’s College, Dehiwela rugby football team and he also played cricket and was a leading swimmer.

In rugby football, he played as a forward and rugged play was well-known in rugby circles. In mid sixties, he was the only player from St. Mary’s Dehiwela to play in the Combined Schools team against the University of Sri Lanka and then has established himself as a strong forward at rugby football and he was also a very hardy water-polo player and a sea swim specialist.

In water-polo and sea swimming, he did much for the Old Thomians Swimming Club and then he bade goodbye to Sri Lanka.

But before he left Sri Lanka, he had learnt the rudiments in the hotel trade and followed a Management Course under the able guidance of another top water-polo player Edda Pereira, who had established himself in the hotel trade and Anton Swan followed a course in the Hotel School in Galle Face around 1966 after leaving school - St. Mary’s Dehiwela.

When he established himself in the Motel trade in Brisbane, he didn’t look back and in 1979, he had the opportunity of buying a motel in Brisbane.

The year 1979 was the year that he really went into the Motel business. Earlier he ran a child care centre for five years and ran a coffee lounge for about 12 years from 1983.

Anton Swan had the opportunity of meeting the then President of Sri Lanka Mr. Ranasinghe Premadasa when Mr. Premadasa went to Australia for World Expo and Anton Swan was the co-ordinator for the Sri Lankan pavilion.

He has been in the Motel business for close on 30 years and is doing well these days. He is the father of four children - 3 boys and a girl. He is extremely lucky in having Bronwen, a Aussie as his wife as Bronwen is a partner in all his business ventures.

Anton was the President of Sri Lanka Society of Queensland for 3 years - 1986 to 1988 and has been on the Management Committee for 10 years.

He is in Charge of all arrangements for visiting VIPs from Sri Lanka and that included the late Mr. Ranasinghe Premadasa and quite recently, Mr. Mahinda Samarasinghe - the Minister of Disaster Management who was there at the function to celebrate 60th Independence Day celebrations where there were around 450 guests.

The guests included Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner, Mr. Balapatabendi and around 50 other VIPs that included Heads of Government and Local Government.

Speaking about Sri Lanka Anton and Mrs. Swan were very pleased with the improvement of the facilities at the Colombo International Airport at Katunayake and all the Aussie visitors were highly taken up what the Sri Lankan authorities have done even after tsunami disaster.

Sri Lanka should get many tourists to the island once again. The rates and services provided to the tourists are very favourable and much cheaper than what we have to offer the foreigners when they come over there.

“The hotel that I manage now is quite expensive when one compares the food and beverages offered by the Sri Lankan hotels. So, Sri Lanka should forge ahead,” said Anton Swan.

But he regrets one thing - the adverse publicity regarding the war that is going on in the North and East. “The government should do their best to put this right and once the adverse publicity stops, there will be more tourists coming to Sri Lanka. Life seems to go on in Sri Lanka, nevertheless,” quipped Swan.